The ongoing saga of my life as an only child, a wife and a working mother

07/24/2009

Mother's Day

My parents came to visit me the week before Mother's Day this year. Part of the reason for the visit was so they could help me take care of the kids for a week while my husband was gone on a motorcycling trip around Utah and Vegas with some friends. I'll have to elaborate on this passion of his in a future entry.

It was nice to be able to celebrate Mother's Day with my parents. We see each other only a few times a year since they live far away, and though she may drive me nuts I miss her.

My mother is thoughtful and sends cards for every birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, truly any occasion for which she can find a card at the dollar store ("They're just as beautiful!"). It's very sweet - I wish I could manage to do the same. So when they arrived and put away their suitcases she excitedly came to the dining room with a shiny gold gift bag. My son desperately wanted to help me open the present, but my mom was conflicted and nervous about this because the item was breakable and valuable, she was compelled to tell us. So we carefully took the box out of the bag together, opened the lid, and removed the tissue. I peaked inside, and could see a pretty ivory ceramic lid with delicate pink flowers and little rhinestones. Hmmm... intriguing! I reached in and lifted what felt like a vase, or maybe a carafe?, out onto the table. And there it was. An urn. "Do you like it???" my mom asked with cautious enthusiasm. "It's very pretty" I replied tentatively, though really it is very pretty. I just wasn't sure what to make of it. "Open it!" she suggested it. Oh god, what's in there?!? So I lift the lid and there were many little pink slips of paper inside. "It's an urn of wishes!" she exclaimed.

An urn full of wishes.

Wow. In fact, I hadn't noticed, but wrapped around the neck of the urn is a ribbon strung through a heart with the inscription "A year of wishes for my daughter". This is both unbelievably sweet and unbelievably insane. "Do you think there are really enough wishes for a year in there?" she asked, concerned that she may have been ripped off. Oh, and the lid, as it turns out, is musical. When you wind it up it plays beautiful dreamer. As we were checking out the different features of the urn full of wishes my dad said "When I go you can put me in there. Unless it's scented."

"You talk for nothing"

I have to admit that this urn full of wishes is quite a discussion piece, of course. It's truly an amazing skill my mom has for finding these sorts of things. I have not been using it as suggested, a wish per day. Instead, on the rare occasion that we have a dinner party everyone gets to pull out a wish at the end of the night.

Tonight we each pulled out a wish for kicks, so here you go:

Mine: You are your work. Don't trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That's a rotten bargain. - Rita Mae Brown (I will contemplate this. Am not convinced.)

Hubby's: Hugs were made to be shared! (Aww.)

My son's: All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: act as if it were impossible to fail. - Dorothea Brande (Now, I have to admit, I like this one. Hubby was more cynical. He also has concluded that, since the wishes are in an urn, they are dead wishes that will not come true.)

Baby girl's: I'll not listen to reason. Reason always means what someone else has to say. - Elizabeth Gaskell. (This wish is quite relevant at this point in my daughter's life.)